The Metric Century (100KM) A Month Challenge ChatZone

[cosmicbike]

@cosmicbike - you have left me off the list of participants in your first post of the 2018 Challenge thread! Also - you didn't delete the instruction to copy one's previous ride list and add a new ride to that, when the rule was changed to us each editing our original ride post.[/QUOTE]

Oops, my bad. All corrected now

 

[Sbudge]

Well April's is done...which is a minor miracle as I'm travelling on business for most of the month. It was however pretty much the hardest ride I've ever done (flelt much harder than Mt Tiede for example). Not because it was particularly long, steep or fast (good grief no) but because the temperature averaged 34 degrees C and was stable at over 37 degrees for the last hour or so. I really struggled, twice I had to stop when HR started to spike, I'm really glad I was wearing the HRM. Kudos for Cody of Big Wheel Tours for a great route and bags of patience when I was going so slowly at the top.

 

[tallliman]

I'm getting too old for this! Saracen Spring Century audax completed ... but missed the time limit on an audax for the first time ever. It was already a long one, but it didn't help that my written route sheet didn't agree with Rich's GPS file. and we ended up adding a further 6 rather hilly miles to it by taking wrong turns. I started to suffer at the 55 mile mark and had to be given a gel at 65 miles. Rich had a slow puncture around the 60 mile mark and had to stop 3 times to pump up his rear tyre. The café had closed and the organisers had gone home by the time we got back to Droitwich. Strangely, we both ended up enjoying it anyway. Spotted a field of reindeer and a Vulcan bomber today, and completed my second longest ride ever, at 78.4 miles (126.1km). Also got to see some cracking Warwickshire lanes I'd never ridden before. April done. That's 40 months in a row now, and it's brought my Eddington number (Imperial) up to 54.

I'd guess that was xm655 at Wellesbourne.

 

[Donger]

I'd guess that was xm655 at Wellesbourne.

Spot on, Mr Talliman. There's no flies on you.

 

[ColinJ]

Spot on, Mr Talliman. There's no flies on you.

By the end of my ride yesterday there were no flies on me either - I not only broke the zip on my bibtights, I also broke both the zips on my Camelbak bag (<--- as sported by me in my current avatar picture)!

 

[GuyBoden]

2nd April ride, cloudy no rain, another easy Cheshire loop ride, around the back of Macclesfield, taking in the Wizard at Alderley on the way back.

There's a lot of mud on the country lanes, a big blob of sticky mud hit the bottom cogs of my rear cassette, so I didn't change gear until I spotted a piece of string and cleaned out the offending mud from each cog.

Here's the old Raleigh, still going strong since 1989. (With a lot of new parts admittedly.)

 

[Sea of vapours]

Second April ride done. That was verging on warm towards the end of the afternoon and early evening. At this rate I'll actually be able to wear non-winter kit very soon. Of those people I saw today, roughly one in five were in shorts, though those were later in the day, when it was convincingly sunny and at least looked warm; earlier on it wasn't sunny, didn't look warm and basically wasn't warm, so everyone on longer rides was overdressed later.

I went and wandered around down some lanes that I've never been down and keep meaning to. The reason I've never been down them is, of course, that a) they're very 'laney', in the sense of having a less than superb surface covered in mud and gravel, and b) they don't go anywhere actually useful (to me, that is; doubtless the half a dozen people whose houses and farms they pass find them very useful indeed). So, now they're ticked, I suspect I'll never cross them again :-)

Remarkable that on a rather fine day there were no apparent other metric centuries on this thread!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1508485631

 

[Goonerobes]

I did a metric too @Sea of vapours but the route I chose was so uninspiring I couldn't think of anything good to say about it!

Still, it was a nice day though.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1507774629

 

[Sea of vapours]

I couldn't think of anything good to say about it!

Aha! So you did.

I think this is the flaw in the 'edit in place' scheme we've adopted this year: it's a major faff to scan through the recording thread to see if anyone's done anything so I, for one, don't, or at least very rarely anyway.

 

[Ajax Bay]

I think this is the flaw in the 'edit in place' scheme we've adopted this year: it's a major faff to scan through the recording thread to see if anyone's done anything so I, for one, don't,

I, too, think that the step to 'edit in place' was a retrograde step (and we've now had 100 days of it) for that reason and also, I, for one, have not had the same incentive to get out and do a few more each month. I found the previous reporting scheme alerted me to see the rides challengers had completed, look at the tracks/Strava if I wanted, empathise with their effort and 'like' their ride.
I also found the previous reporting scheme motivating in that respect: this one: scarcely at all (appreciate objective judgements of shallowness etc).
The single advantage the 'edit in place' scheme offers, unless I've missed others, is that it allows the volunteer 'overseer' to check more quickly who's done / yet to do this/that month's challenge ride. I, for one, used to look at each challenger's latest thread and one could see immediately whether they'd completed or not. I, for one, did/do not find any benefit in the 'you've only got a week to go' posts from @cosmicbike (sorry cb). Individuals are responsible to themselves for maintaining the year round effort to achieve this challenge. No gratuitous monitoring is required, imo. On that basis, it doesn't matter if it's a 'bit difficult' to tell if x or y has not done the challenge come 31st of the month.
So I advocate a return to the previous reporting scheme within an agreed timeframe and invite others to share their opinions including articulation of the benefits of the new scheme.

 

[cosmicbike]

You could always do both? TBH I too miss the alerts, and now I have myself a bit organized, Excel spreadsheet no less, tracking completers is easier.

 

[Bazzer]

I, too, think that the step to 'edit in place' was a retrograde step (and we've now had 100 days of it) for that reason and also, I, for one, have not had the same incentive to get out and do a few more each month. I found the previous reporting scheme alerted me to see the rides challengers had completed, look at the tracks/Strava if I wanted, empoathise with their effort and 'like' their ride.
I also foun the previous reporting scheme motivating in that respect: this one: scarcely at all (appreciate objective judgements of shallowness etc).
The single advantage the 'edit in place' scheme offers, unless I've missed others, is that it allows the volunteer 'overseer' to check more quickly who's done / yet to do this/that month's challenge ride. I, for one, used to look at each challenger's latest thread and one could see immediately whether they'd completed or not. I, for one, did/do not find and benefit in the 'you've only got a week to go' posts from @cosmicbike (sorry cb). Individuals are responsible to themselves for maintaining the year round effort to achieve this challenge. No gratuitous monitoring is required, imo. On that basis, it doesn't matter if it's a 'bit difficult' to tell if x or y has not done the challenge come 31st of the month.
So I advocate a return to the previous reporting scheme within an agreed timeframe and invite others to share their opinions including articulation of the benefits of the new scheme.

Must admit, personally I find the "edit in place" scheme slightly sterile, although I can see the benefit of it from the overseer's point of view.

One of the advantages of the challenge, to me at least, is psychological. With the half century a month challenge, I know there are some who will post one or two rides a month, but seeing others keep clocking up multiple qualifying rides, does bring out the competitor in me. I may not be able to match them, because of each person's individual circumstances, but it does give me an incentive to get out.

 

[Katherine]

I quite like the idea of posting once a month, editing to add any extra.

I did 59 miles on the club ride today so luckily I had time to add a loop to make it over 62.2 which I did, coming back on 102km. Phew .
Annoyingly the strava recording won't upload on my phone. At least I can look at someone else's to see where we've been because we went on some really pretty lanes south of Knutsford that I hadn't done before.
I'll go and edit my challenge post shortly.

 

[GuyBoden]

I quite like the idea of posting once a month, editing to add any extra..

We agreed this year for one post only for the whole year and edit that post for each subsequent ride........

But, I too, don't think it's as good as the old method..........

 

[ColinJ]

As suggested previously ... the perfect solution would probably be - edit one's ride list in the one ride post after each ride AND post a link to that post after every ride. That avoids duplicating the ride details over and over, but would still alert others to any changes.